


Not always Sweet

by destielwithashotgun



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Bisexual Fangs Fogarty, Bisexual Sweet Pea, F/F, How Do I Tag, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Mostly Hurt/Comfort, go me, i guess, i love them, idk what else to put, kinda a sick fic, mentions of abuse, two fics in two days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 04:47:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17176187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destielwithashotgun/pseuds/destielwithashotgun
Summary: He got his nickname when he was in sixth grade. By then, his brother had already joined the Southside Serpents and he knew that he was going to as well. It was a teacher who gave it to him, one he didn't know. It was before he go tough, learned that if he wasn't, he wouldn't survive in their world. He helped her out, and she said (with an interesting southern accent) "thanks Sweet Pea". And later, when other kids made fun of him, the name stuck. But he wasn't always sweet. At least, not unless he was with one particular person.





	Not always Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> I've had a thing of skittles, four cookies, two and a half push pops, and a can of mountain dew-I'm ready to write more trashy fanfiction for this train wreck of a show. By the way, in this, Sweet Pea lives with his brother named Trip.

Sweet Pea remembers when Fangs got shot. The memory is a blur, but somehow he can remember every single detail. He remembers the claustrophobic feeling of ushering Fangs through the screaming crowd, FP and Jughead in front, Toni on the other side. He remembers the shot ringing out, and the sudden stop in time before the chaos increases tenfold. He remembers how he turned, realizes that Fangs is staring down at himself, and notices the growing bloodstain on his shirt just before the boy collapses. He remembers the blood covering his fingers when he tries to staunch the flow, remembers Jones screaming for help. Remembers the heart stopping feeling when he hears that Fangs has died. 

He doesn't know how to react when he learns that Fangs never really died. He doesn't want to be too overjoyed (he can't give himself away after all) but his best friend just came back from the dead and damn it if he can't show his true feelings, he's going to get as close to them as he can. Turns out Fangs is just as glad to see Sweet Pea as he is to see Fangs, and they hug tightly before pulling away and teasing each other. Sweet Pea know's he will never get the memory out of his head. 

Riot night is over, and in the light of everything that has happened (including Jones nearly fucking dying for the serpents) Sweet Pea doesn't have a lot of time to really think about his feelings. There is too much to do, to think, to figure out, and he decides to push them to the side until he has time for them again. That time comes when he's home after the party (could you call it a party?) where Jughead accepts the title of Serpent King and initiates Toni's intense red-head girlfriend. 

Trip isn't home, though that's not a surprise because he rarely is, so Sweet Pea has their trailer to himself. And he doesn't know what to think. 

He and Fangs had been best friend since kindergarten, with Toni making them a trio in first grade. They had joined the Serpents together, gone through initiation and helped each other out with it afterwards. Sweet Pea know's he's bi. He's known it ever since he saw Toni kiss a girl in seventh grade and realized that-oh yeah, gay people exist. And then after some existential crisis type stuff, realized that he also liked boys. Which was a big realization and, since happening almost four years ago, hadn't really gone anywhere. 

As far as he could figure out, he thought boys were attractive, might even date them, but every time he looked at a boy he thought of someone else. And that someone else had nearly died from a gunshot wound on riot night. Sweet Pea figures that's when he realized that-holy shit dumbass, you've had a crush on Fangs the entire time. He doesn't know what to do with the information, so he just pushes it to the side. Fangs doesn't like him back anyway, so there's no point. 

He kept his feelings hidden. Even when new freaky shit starts happening in Riverdale leaving everybody on edge, Sweet Pea just sticks with his two best friends (and sometimes Jones, who he actually respected now). And then he get's sick. And it all goes to shit. 

Trip is mostly a good big brother. He pays for the trailer and their food, working two jobs and picking up more when he can find them. Sometimes though, he falls off the wagon. Sweet Pea know's that FP was an alcoholic for a long time (probably still is actually) and if Jones live's with it, so will Sweet Pea. It's not like he's not used to being around drunk people. The Wyrm has plenty. He wasn't expecting his brother to lock him out of the trailer though, on the coldest night in Riverdale history. 

He supposes some of it is his fault. When he brother pushed him outside and locked the door, he expected it to be unlocked shortly after. Instead of going to Fangs' foster family, Toni's uncle's house (though who knows how that would have worked out) or even to Jughead's, he sat down outside in the snow and waiting for the door to unlock. His second mistake was falling asleep. 

He's lucky. He's only out there for about three hours, since his friends decide they want to cause some late night trouble at 2 in the morning. But three hours is enough. When he wakes up, there are frantic voices above his head and he can hardly feel anything. He's not even cold anymore, though he is tired, and he think's about going back to sleep. The only thing that stops him is Fangs, who kneels next to him and commands that he not close his eyes. He doesn't know how long he can keep that up for. 

A few minutes later (or maybe its seconds, he's not really sure), he notices that Toni is there too. He attempts to smile at her, not really sure what's going on other than he doesn't feel very good. His head is aching slightly, but mostly he just doesn't really feel. He knows he should probably be worried that his fingers seemed to have disappeared (at least, he doesn't know how to feel anything with them) but he really just wants to go to bed. 

"Sweet Pea, stay awake please" Fangs' voice is distorted, but Pea has never heard him say please before so some part of him knows that something serious is going on. It's getting increasingly harder to keep his eyes open but he loves Fangs and he's going to try to do whatever he tells him. Suddenly there are arms around him and he feels himself being lifted up so that his legs drag on the ground. He doesn't have the energy to protest. 

He must have blacked out because the next thing he knows, he's being pulled through the back door or Fangs' foster family's house. Fangs turns and Sweet Pea can see the relief in his eyes. Fangs has never been as good at hiding his emotions as Sweet Pea is. "Be quiet, Sweet Pea" he orders. That shouldn't be a problem. Sweet Pea can't even move his mouth. 

By the time they make it to Fangs' room, Sweet Pea is on the verge of falling asleep again. Or maybe he isn't falling asleep, but he doesn't want to think about it. By now, he know's something is wrong. He's grateful that Fangs' foster parents had a bedroom on the top floor, while Fangs was in the basement. He's lost all sense of time, but he know's that it's dark outside which means it must be night. He hopes that Fangs' foster parents (were they the Carsons? or Maybe the Johnsons?) don't get mad at Fangs for bringing another serpent into their house. Though Fangs was a serpent himself...maybe the family didn't know? But Sweet Pea is wearing his jacket...his head hurts too much to think, so he stops. 

Suddenly he's being stripped. His jacket comes off, and then Fangs and Toni are pulling his shirt over his head. "Why are you taking my clothes off?" he asks, though it comes out as more of a slur, and it's barely understandable. Luckily, Toni seems to understand. 

"You have hypothermia dumbass. You're clothes are soaked. It's just making it worse." It takes Sweet Pea way too long to process what she says, and he gives up right after she says 'hypothermia'. He lets them take off his shirt and his pants, too out of it to really feel awkward around Toni. They're best friends anyway, and nothing really gets awkward with them anymore. 

Fangs starts dressing him in different clothes, and Sweet Pea has no idea when he went to get them. It's a t-shirt and sweat pants. He can't even feel the material against his skin and that's when he finally figures out that he's actually in danger. He can't even remember what hypothermia means, but he know's its bad and he should help Fangs and Toni. Unfortunately, he can't make himself sit up. Speaking of Toni, she seemed to have disappeared. 

His eyes roam around the room trying to find her, but then he gets distracted when a piece of wet hair falls into his eyes. He focuses on that for longer than he probably should, but when he looks up again Toni's back, and conversing with Fangs. He doesn't know what they're talking about, but they must agree on something because suddenly they're both reaching down to grab him again. 

They put him in Fangs' bed, and the color in the room is blurring together. There are so many blankets on him, and it's suffocating. He still feels numb, but there is a little bit of feeling starting to come back in his body. It feels like he's being submerged in icy water, and he really just wants it to stop so he can go to sleep. Suddenly the bed dips, and somebody crawls in next to him. 

Sweet Pea turns halfway, and see's Fangs curling up next to him. They've slept in the same bed before, but this time Fangs moves an arm over and pulls Sweet Pea closer to him as Toni settles in on the other side. He's starting to get colder, which doesn't seem right. He should be getting warmer, right? But now he's shivering, so bad it's almost violent. Fangs and Toni are so close to him that he know's he's shaking them as well, but he can't get himself to stop. He's. So. Cold. So he just goes with it, and soon he's asleep. 

When he wakes up, he still cold but he isn't shivering as harshly. Toni is gone, but Sweet Pea is curled into Fangs who is still wrapped around him. Sweet Pea can tell that he's asleep by the way his breathing is long and deep. For a moment, he panics because they still need to be at school. Then when he realizes it's Saturday, he's nervous about Fangs' foster parents finding him there. 

His breathing must have picked up, because a minute later Fangs stirs and rolls over a little bit. "Sweet Pea" he says, and Sweet Pea can feel himself calm down a little bit, just because he can hear Fangs' voice. 

"Your foster parents" he says, and rolls as much as he can so that he can face Fangs. He's too tired to be embarrassed that he was the little spoon, which has never happened before ever. 

"It's ok. They never come into my room, and they don't bother me on Saturday's. Besides, I think they have some sort of movie thing they're going to in Centerville today. I doubt they're even home." 

Sweet Pea nods, and then rolls back over because dammit he's still cold and he wants to go back to bed. He's already drifting off when he feels a hand grab his shoulder and roll him back over. He groans and smashes his face into the pillow. "What?" he's not even sure if Fangs can understand him, but it doesn't matter. 

"You still haven't told me why you were outside for so long last night. You gave yourself hypothermia you dumbass" Sweet Pea resents another one of his friends calling him a dumbass, and he glares halfheartedly. 

"That's because I've only been awake for a few minutes." he snarks back, trying to roll back over. All he remembers of the night before is colors and cold. Toni was there, he thinks, and they brought him to Fangs' house. It takes him a minute to remember why, before he thinks about Trip, and getting locked out. 

"Well you'r awake now, so you can tell me everything." Fangs replies. Sweet Pea gives him another glare, but Fangs just looks smug and raises his eyebrows, impatient. Rolling his eyes, Sweet Pea resigns himself to the fact that he has no choice in the matter. 

"Trip was drinking again. He locked me out of the trailer." He wants to go back to sleep now, since he's told his story. He's having trouble keeping his eyes open, and he's still shivering pretty hard, which makes it difficult to speak easily. Fangs looks at him in disbelief and...is he angry? 

"Then why the hell didn't you come here? I could have gotten you in without anyone knowing if you had just texted me." Sweet Pea doesn't know how to reply, not expecting Fangs to be so upset about it. 

He shrugs slightly. "I thought he would let me back in like, 20 minutes later at the most. And then I fell asleep." Fangs presses his lips together and looks away momentarily. Sweet Pea watches, concerned. They've been through worse. Maybe the difference was that they've been through worse together. He's not really sure, but he's getting a headache. 

"You could have died if you had been out there until morning. If we hadn't found you in time." Fangs' voice is tight and controlled, and he finally looks Sweet Pea in the eye. He looks more upset than angry, though Sweet Pea didn't think he should really be anything other than slightly concerned. 

"But you did find me. And I'm fine." It doesn't seem to help. If anything, Fangs looks more aggravated. 

"Was there a reason you didn't want to go to anyone?" Fangs asks, and Sweet Pea sighs, wishing he could go to sleep. He know's Fangs wants to talk. He's always been more...in touch with his sensitive side. Sweet Pea feels just about as sensitive as a rock. 

"No, Fangs." is all he can say. His headache is getting worse, but he know's that he won't be able to go back to sleep until he finishes talking to his best friend. 

"I always went to you when my dad-" he cuts himself off, but Sweet Pea freezes. Fangs never talks about his dad. Ever since he was taken from his home when he was in sixth grade, he hasn't said anything about it. Even when they tried to force him to go to therapy, Sweet Pea know's he refused to talk about it. They've all gotten used to the scars by now, and Fangs has much more interesting scars now (ones that he's actually proud of). But nobody dared to bring it up in front of him. Him bringing it up on his own was...well, extremely unusual. And very serious. 

Sweet Pea turns and meets his eyes, and Fangs has his teeth clenched but he doesn't look away. His hands are gripping the blanket on top of them, and he's shaking slightly. It's almost unnoticed. "Fangs," Sweet Pea says softly, and because he doesn't know what else to do, grabs onto one of his hands. His feelings are forgotten. At least, they are until Fangs surges forward and presses their lips together. 

Sweet Pea doesn't know what to do at first. He's so shocked it takes him a second until he starts kissing back. When Fangs finally pulls away, both of them are gasping for breath. Sweet Pea looks at Fangs, who looks surprised, like he either didn't expect to do that, or didn't expect Sweet Pea to start kissing back. "I'm-sorry" he stutters, but Sweet Pea shakes his head. 

"Don't be sorry. I'm sorry. I should have come to you. I will now." Sweet Pea doesn't know what else to do other than kiss Fangs again (and it makes his chest hurt, in a good way) but less desperate this time. It was Sweet. Sweet Pea only lived up to his name around Fangs. 

"Can we go back to sleep now?" he mutters. Fangs laughs a little bit. 

"Yeah, Sweets. We can go back to sleep."


End file.
